1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a juice extractor or a juicer and more particularly to a juicer in which material is ground up and then compressed so that the juice is extracted.
2. Prior Art
A juicer is a device which extracts juice from various vegetables, tubers, and fruits. In the past, juicers used to extract juice were mainly of the centrifuge type, and a squeezing-type juicer was first proposed by the inventor of the present applicant in Korean Application Number for Utility Model Registration No. 86-17672.
Conventional juicers using the centrifugation method are suitable for extracting juice from fruit. But in the case of food items such as vegetables and tubers which have a large amount of fiber and a low water content, when these materials are sliced, the rate of juice extraction is not very high even at a considerably high rotation speed, and there is the problem of discharge of residual heavy metals from the food items with the juice.
To the contrary, in the juicer proposed by the inventor, i.e., a squeezing-type juicer, vegetables are sliced and compressed, but as squeezing is carried out simultaneously with slicing in order to extract the juice, the juice extraction rate is several times higher than that of centrifugation-type devices, and this type of unit has the advantage of preventing residual heavy metals from flowing out together with the juice. These squeezing-type juicers account for virtually all of the current market demand for juicers.
FIG. 1 shows a completed juicer devised and developed by the inventor disclosed in the Korean Utility Model Registration No. 59191.
In FIGS. 1A and 1B, by means of a drive gear group T connected a drive motor M, a pair of mutually interlocking rotating grinders K are used to grind material I inserted through a hopper H, and when the inserted material is transferred to a juice-squeezing net D, the squeezed juice J drops into a receptacle V along a juice guide G1, and the residue R is discharged via a residue guide G2.
However, compared to low-load, high-revolution-speed centrifuge-type juicers, when the grinding gear K grinds the inserted material I and the juice is squeezed out on the side of the juice-squeezing net D, the above-described type of juicer takes on the characteristics of a high load, low-revolution speed juicer. Accordingly, the drive motor M must handle an extremely high torque, and the speed reduction rate of the drive gear group T must also be increased to a considerable extent, so the drive motor M and the drive gear group T must be comparatively large in size. This makes the juicer large, with a weight of over 10 kg, resulting in a certain degree of inconvenience in moving and using such a heavy device.
Moreover, in grinding of the inserted substance by the pair of grinding gears K, as the functions of the grinding and/or compressing device are carried out simultaneously, a high degree of precision is required in designing and manufacturing the teeth of the pair of mutually interlocking grinding gears K used in this device. More specifically, one grinding gear K is equipped with a grinding component G in the form of a helical gear and a moving component S in the form of an Archimedes' screw, and it must be designed and manufactured so as to be capable of carrying out grinding and transporting/compressing of the material simultaneously, which is troublesome, making it difficult to achieve the optimum drive conditions for grinding and compressing.
Because the juicer is designed so that the grinding gear K grinds the inserted material I and squeezing is carried out by the juice-squeezing net D, the squeezing net D must be precisely manufactured, and the squeezing net D used is composed of thin porous plates, making handling and washing extremely difficult.
In order to solve these problems, the inventor of the present application proposed a juicer as shown in FIG. 2. This device was disclosed in the Korean Utility Model Registration Application No. 93-15905 which was filed on Aug. 18, 1993.
As shown in FIG. 2, respective vertically-aligned grinding C1 and compression chambers C2 contain a pair of helical gears 11 driven by drive axles S1 and S2 which are separate from the drive motor M, as well as a drive gear group T and an Archimedes' screw 12. The grinding chamber C1 and the compression chamber C2 are connected to or communicate with each other via a passage C3. Thus, the material inserted into the hopper H is ground by the helical gear 11 in the grinding chamber C1 and then drops via the passage C3 into the compression chamber C2, where it is discharged by the Archimedes' screw 12. Moreover, as compression is carried out by means of the regulating device for controlling the squeezing force 13, the juice is discharged via the juice-squeezing outlet 14, and the residue is discharged via the discharge passage 15.
In this type of vertically-aligned juicer, however, the compression chamber C2 begins at the bottom of the grinding chamber C1 accordingly, the required length of the gear housing makes the juicer unavoidably long, and the drive axle of the Archimedes' screw 12 also needs to have a long extending section 12a which protrudes to a considerable degree from the drive gear group T. Thus, the result is a decrease in the drive efficiency in the event of a strong vibration.